Prof. Lightsey’s Research Lab
Prof. Lightsey’s lab focuses on spacecraft technology hardware design, prototyping, and testing comprising over 1000 sq. ft. of workspace. The lab includes eight computer workstations equipped for CAD, software development, modeling, and simulation. Four electronic workbenches are provided for electronics development, staging, and testing, including a fully functional CubeSat flat satellite. A 12 sq. ft. class 10,000 clean bench is used for in-lab flight hardware subsystem assembly and testing. The lab includes a multi-GNSS signal simulator for satellite radionavigation testing and a thermal vacuum chamber with an 8 cu. ft. internal test chamber rated to 10^-6 torr.
Prof. Gunter’s Research Lab
Dr. Gunter’s lab is primarily used for CubeSat design, development, and testing. The lab includes an electronics workstation, software development workstations, and a clean room for building and assembling sensitive space hardware. For spacecraft testing, the lab includes a Helmholtz cage for simulating Earth’s magnetic field and an air bearing with two degrees of freedom for simulating the torque-free rotation experienced in space.
Dedicated Spacecraft Assembly Clean Room
Georgia Tech’s spacecraft fabrication and test facilities include: 1) 400 sq. ft. class 100,000 clean room, and several 12 sq. ft. class 10,000 clean benches; 2) satellite assembly/inspection station; 3) surface mount component assembly station; 4) solder reflow oven; 5) thermal vacuum chamber (-10 to +70 deg C); 6) anechoic RF chamber; and 7) 20 sq. ft. vibration shaker table. Immediately adjacent but exterior to the cleanroom envelope is an electrical test station with electrical pass-throughs into the cleanroom assembly area and test chambers.
S-Band Satellite Ground Station
Georgia Tech offers post-launch operations through its high-gain S-band and UHF/VHF ground stations. The network has been used to command and control the RANGE, LightSail-1, Bevo-2, Prox-1, Lightsail-2, and ARMADILLO spacecraft. The SSDL tracking station provides spacecraft command and data downlink capability. With two independent ground station locations on campus and at the Georgia Tech satellite campus at Cobb County Research Facility, rotor-driven antenna systems provide horizon-to-horizon sky coverage. A 3-m diameter dish is used for high gain S-band receive and transmit capability, and a Yagi antenna provides UHF/VHF uplink and downlink capability. Tracking station support equipment includes a Kenwood TS-2000X transceiver, an Icom IC-R9500 receiver, and a Software Defined Radio. NOVA and Ham Radio Deluxe software are used for satellite tracking and antenna steering
Raven Telescope
Rigorous, scholarly Space Situational Awareness research is uniquely hampered by a chronic and severe lack of direct observational data that a) is specific to the research problem at hand and b) will pass public release reviews at funding agencies. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that, by and large, the vast majority of space object data collection is performed by the United States SSN. To address this problem, Georgia Tech has constructed the Space Object Research Telescope (GT-SORT), a Raven-class space surveillance telescope (0.5 m, f/8) capable of directly observing on-orbit space objects and validating algorithm performance. GT-SORT is one of the telescopes in the Georgia Tech Observatory and is used by the public in regularly scheduled outreach events.
GT Mission Control Center
Space flight operations are conducted from the Space Systems Design Lab MOC, a 540 sq. ft. facility located in the Engineering Science and Mechanics building. Desktop computer consoles for each spacecraft subsystem and the mission director are configured for mission monitoring and data analysis. Secure ground data servers are located on campus and may be remotely accessed with Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Cyber Security gateways.